7 lessons start-ups can learn from the Armed Forces

The fundamental definition of warfare is ‘more contenders with less resources’. Interestingly enough, it is also the fundamental definition of a business.

Raghu Raman in his recent TEDx talk in Goa taught 7 lessons that a startup can learn from an army and succeed. He said there is a single tool to make this lesson easy.

The tool is simple, the Z KIT bag that an army carries. This tool has been used worldwide to understand complex problems.

“This framework can be used to write a term paper or used for your startup to scale up,” said Raghu.

Here it begins with each alphabet.

1. ‘Z’ stands for Zameeni Nishan (Environmental scan) means the lay of the land. Before you land a mission, you need to know what kinds of perimeter you are going to enter.

So also a startup needs to know the entry barriers, the level of rivalry there out there and the market.

2. The ‘K’ stands for Khabar (Intelligence). When you are launching a campaign, you need to know information and information is all about your competitor. Unless you are aware of your counterparts you will be blindsided by the competition in the market.

3. The next alphabet ‘I’ stands for Irada (Strategic Intent). Irada has to be spelt out in crystal clarity so that the last person in your organisation should understand it without any ambiguity. A typical ‘irada’ would be how the platoon would capture this hill top no later than 0600 hours in the morning. In case the commander breaks down, they should be able to assume orders in the absence of orders. Everyone involved in the business should be able to handle any kinds of emergencies.

4. ‘T’ stands for Tareeka (methodology). The methodology of execution should be clear to each and everyone.

5. ‘B’ stands for Bandobast (Resources). Without resources, from any business is bound to fail.

6. ‘A’ stands for Administration. Logistics and the team should be in place always. G stands for 7. ‘G’ stands for Ghadi Milao (timelines) which means that every soldier will have their watch exactly tuned to the same time. So also in a business every minds should be aligned in the direction of success of that business.

See the full video here.

(Image credits: indiatimes, video credits: youtube/TEDx)